Neda Ulaby
Neda Ulaby reports on arts, entertainment, and cultural trends for NPR's Arts Desk.
Scouring the various and often overlapping worlds of art, music, television, film, new media and literature, Ulaby's radio and online stories reflect political and economic realities, cultural issues, obsessions and transitions, as well as artistic adventurousness— and awesomeness.
Over the last few years, Ulaby has strengthened NPR's television coverage both in terms of programming and industry coverage and profiled breakout artists such as Ellen Page and Skylar Grey and behind-the-scenes tastemakers ranging from super producer Timbaland to James Schamus, CEO of Focus Features. Her stories have included a series on women record producers, an investigation into exhibitions of plastinated human bodies, and a look at the legacy of gay activist Harvey Milk. Her profiles have brought listeners into the worlds of such performers as Tyler Perry, Ryan Seacrest, Mark Ruffalo, and Courtney Love.
Ulaby has earned multiple fellowships at the Getty Arts Journalism Program at USC Annenberg as well as a fellowship at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism to study youth culture. In addition, Ulaby's weekly podcast of NPR's best arts stories. Culturetopia, won a Gracie award from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation.
Joining NPR in 2000, Ulaby was recruited through NPR's Next Generation Radio, and landed a temporary position on the cultural desk as an editorial assistant. She started reporting regularly, augmenting her work with arts coverage for D.C.'s Washington CityPaper.
Before coming to NPR, Ulaby worked as managing editor of Chicago's Windy City Times and co-hosted a local radio program, What's Coming Out at the Movies. Her film reviews and academic articles have been published across the country and internationally. For a time, she edited fiction for The Chicago Review and served on the editing staff of the leading academic journal Critical Inquiry. Ulaby taught classes in the humanities at the University of Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University and at high schools serving at-risk students.
A former doctoral student in English literature, Ulaby worked as an intern for the features desk of the Topeka Capital-Journal after graduating from Bryn Mawr College. She was born in Amman, Jordan, and grew up in the idyllic Midwestern college towns of Lawrence, Kansas and Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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Watching Netflix, Hulu Plus and HBO Go with a friend or family member's password? You're not nearly alone — and that may spell trouble for providers. -
The Urban Movie Channel, created by BET founder Robert L. Johnson, is being touted as the black Netflix. Its first original movie, Blackbird,is about a gay interracial romance in the Deep South. -
It's happened enough that it's a thing: A stellar actor is awarded for a not-so-stellar role. Many feel it happened again this week with the Oscar nominations. -
Swedish-born actress Anita Ekberg, who was best known for her role as Sylvia in the 1960 film La Dolce Vita, died in Italy on Sunday at the age of 83.
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Bess Myerson was crowned Miss America in 1945 and was the only Jewish-American woman to ever hold the title. She went on to have a long career in public affairs. She died Dec. 14 at the age of 90.
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Texts from Jane Eyre imagines a Mr. Rochester who worries over his "attic wife" and a super flirty Scarlett O'Hara: "did you know that pantalets are out this year[?] that's why I'm not wearing any :)" -
The authors want Amazon's board to intercede in the dispute between the publisher and the online retailer over the price of e-books. Amazon continues to impede sales of Hachette books.
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A group of men in New York are challenging the stereotype that eating meat signifies manliness. Instead, they say that manhood can be proven by caring for the planet, not dominating it. -
There's nothing the Internet hates more than a spoiler. (This story originally aired on All Things Considered on July 26, 2012.)
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Rhythm comes in different forms from music and poetry to those inside our bodies. There's art based on the most primal rhythm of all: the beating of the human heart.
